Oscar Gustav Rejlander

Oscar Gustav Rejlander was born in Sweden in 1813. There is little known about his childhood except that his father Carl Gustaf Rejlander was a Swedish army officer who also worked as a stonemason. While studying the painting of the Old Masters in Rome, he became enamored with Raphael's famous mural, The School of Athens. The fresco's oppositional views and composition were later reflected in Mr. Rejlander's photomontages.

After relocating to Lincoln, England, he quickly changed from a portrait miniaturist and painter to photography after receiving some instruction from one of William Henry Fox Talbot's assistants. In 1846, he moved to 42 Darlington Street in Wolverhampton, where he studied the calotype process at Nicholas Henneman's London studio. Professionally, he acquired the reputation for photographic diversity, specializing in genre scenes, portrature, book illustrations, and religious allegories. He also dabbled in erotica, using young female members of Madame Wharton's theatrical troupe to pose as prostitutes and street urchins. These series of photographs caught the attention of Charles Lutwidge Dodson, better known as Lewis Carroll, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and himself an accomplished amateur photographer.